Interfering

"Interfering" is about an experience that haunts me to this very day, and causes me to still feel deep regret and shame. When I was 8, I let my brother's best friend interfere with me and one of my friends on the playground at recess in 2nd grade. He beckoned me over and told me to call her a word I'd never heard before. I remember feeling weird about it because I wasn't sure what it meant, and for some reason the word felt dirty and wrong, yet I didn’t know why at my young age. He kept urging me to call her this derogatory term, and since he was my brother's best friend, I trusted him and reluctantly called her that horrible word. She cried, I cried, and her parents didn't allow her to be my friend anymore.

I allowed a vampire to sway my values that bled the love out of our friendship. I allowed a snake in the playground grass convince me to act in a way I never imagined, killing a loving relationship with one of my best friends. It remains one of the biggest mistakes I've ever made, and for that I'm truly sorry.